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Neighbors appeal plan to enlarge house on North End’s Onondaga Avenue

A group of neighbors has appealed a decision by the Architectural Commission to approve a renovation-and-expansion project, depicted here, of a one-story house at 202 Onondaga Lane on the North End of Palm Beach. Rendering by Fairfax & Sammons, courtesy Town of Palm Beach

Posted: 9:00 a.m. Monday, October 30, 2017

For the second time in four months, the Palm Beach Town Council will weigh in on a decision made by the Architectural Commission regarding a controversial expansion-and-renovation project planned for a 1950s-era house at 202 Onondaga Ave.

Over the summer, the council effectively sided with the commission when it denied a variance sought by the developer who wants to add a second story to the four-bedroom house and resell it on speculation.

Next month, the council will hear an appeal filed by seven North End neighbors who want the council to overturn the September decision by architectural commissioners to greenlight the renovation.

Since the project was first presented in April, neighbors have strenuously objected, telling officials the renovated house would be far too large for their cozy neighborhood filled with one-story homes. They also fear the project would set a precedent for building two-story houses on the narrow street.

The plans approved Sept. 27 would add a second-floor addition, a fifth bedroom and increase the size of the house from about 2,900 to 4,490 square feet of living space, inside and out.

The project was in the Town Hall pipeline for more than six months and underwent multiple revisions to downscale it as a result of several contentious hearings. The changes included eliminating the need for any variances.

Even so, the final design is “oversized, overmassed, too high” and “dissonant from long-established neighborhood character and tradition,” according to the petition of appeal.

But that view wasn’t held by the majority of commissioners when they voted 4-3 last month to approve what turned out to be the final revision they requested of developer James Dibiase and his architects at Fairfax & Sammons in Palm Beach. The architectural firm is co-owned by commission Chairman Richard Sammons, who was either absent or recused himself from the board’s hearings at which the project was considered.

“Our job is (endorsing) good architecture,” Commissioner Alex Ives said at September’s meeting. “This is a house that is executed with grace and style and wit.”

The petition of appeal was signed by attorney and neighborhood resident John C. Dotterer. The petitioners also include Susan and W. Bradford Gary, Jacqueline and Richard Murphy, Elsa Messing and Gianni Sellers.

Dibiase bought the one-story house in January for about $2 million. The house stands immediately west of another two-story house. But opponents said that residence, at 1460 N. Ocean Blvd., is not part of their neighborhood because it faces the coastal road at the intersection of Onondaga Avenue.

The petition refers to Onondaga Avenue as part of a distinct “enclave” with “14 cottagy bungalows.” Onondaga and three adjacent streets — Laurie Lane, Debra Lane and Esplanade Way — are near the point where North Ocean Boulevard makes a sharp jog away from the beach, about a half-mile south of the inlet.

Among its objections, the petition says the Architectural Commission violated its own rules by not rejecting the design as “excessively dissimilar as to any one feature on even one structure” within 200 feet of it.

But architect Jaime Torres-Cruz directly addressed that issue in September, telling the board that such a strict reading of the similarity ordinance would mean “no two-story house could ever be built next to a one-story house.”

Alternate Commissioner John David Corey, however, sided with the neighbors.

“I couldn’t support this project as it is. The design is very dissimilar to the other smaller houses (on the street),” said Corey, who voted because of Sammons’ recusal.

In the early months of their review, commissioners demanded revisions to the project to eliminate a need for variances to the town’s building codes. The Town Council upheld the board’s view July 12 when it denied Dibiase’s request for variances, which were needed because the design did not comply with “all of the town’s lot, yard and bulk requirements,” according to the minutes of the hearing.

The Town Council is scheduled to hear the appeal at its development review meeting Nov. 15.

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